"Jin-kun!"
Elsa cried out his name yet again.
Finally, Jin raised his head.
"Elsa, Reinhard, sorry for the trouble. Valentino, let's settle this."
"Hmph, finally resigned to your fate?"
Valentino postured triumphantly, but Jin simply stood his ground, relaxed. Reiko remained motionless.
"All right, Albus, wring his neck!" Valentino issued the cold-blooded command.
"Stop!" Reinhard tried to intercept Albus, but a flesh-and-blood human was no match for the machine; he was effortlessly flung aside.
"I won't let you hurt Jin-kun!" Elsa stood as if to shield him, but Jin gently pushed her shoulder aside.
"Thank you, Elsa. Thank you, Reinhard. But I'll settle this myself." With those words, Jin took a step forward. "Come," he beckoned Albus.
"Die!" At Valentino's scream, Albus lunged.
"Eek!" Elsa squeezed her eyes shut. Reinhard tried to look away as well, but his eyes snapped wide at the sight that followed.
"Barrier."
"Wha—what...?"
Albus's arms were poised to seize Jin's head, but they stopped dead about fifty centimeters away, unable to touch him.
"What is this! You! What did you do!"
In a flat, calm voice, Jin replied, "It's just a physical defense barrier."
Valentino smirked. "H-Hmph, you seem to have used some magic tool to defend yourself, but how long will it last? Albus can operate for two or three days without resupply!"
Hearing that, Jin chuckled. "I see. So it really doesn't have an ether converter."
"What did you say?!"
Jin turned and gave an instruction to Reiko. "Reiko, once I neutralize this thing, don't let Valentino get away."
"What are you... what are you talking about..." Valentino was visibly confused, unable to grasp Jin's attitude.
Ignoring him, Jin spoke, applying the Magi Language he had just analyzed. "Erase."
An instant later, Albus's movements froze.
"Write In."
Albus began to move again. However, its target was no longer Jin, but Valentino.
"Wh—D-Done?! Albus, he's over there! Not this way! S-Stay baaaack!"
No matter how much Valentino screamed, Albus did not stop until it finally seized him. With a series of sickening cracks, the bones in both of Valentino's arms shattered under the golem's grip. Furthermore, Albus brought its foot down on Valentino's right leg.
"G-Gyaaaaaaaaah!"
"Ah, crap." Panicking slightly, Jin shouted the keyword. "Stand Still."
If he hadn't spoken, the golem might have torn Valentino's arms clean off. Even so, the man frothed at the mouth and fainted from the agony of his shattered limbs.
"Whew, I'm a bit tired." Jin took a deep breath. "Elsa, I'm sorry, but could you cast some simple healing magic on him?"
He made the request, but Elsa hesitated. "Why? He tried to kill Jin-kun. He has no right to complain if Jin-kun kills him."
"Yeah, it's just my own selfishness," Jin replied. "Besides, it would be a problem if he died from just this. I want him to properly atone for his crimes."
Elsa tilted her head slightly, then said something chilling. "Understood. I will heal him, then hurt him again. If I repeat the cycle, it will be a punishment."
Hearing that, Jin thought, Ah, she really is a person of this world, as he tried to soothe her. "Elsa, a cute girl like you shouldn't say such bloodthirsty things."
As he spoke, he thought he saw Elsa's face turn red for a moment.
"...I understand. For now, I will apply a painkiller. Schmerzmittel."
The man appeared to stop feeling the pain for the time being, but his arms remained twisted into grotesque shapes.
"Reiko, put splints on his arms and then tie him up."
Relieved to finally have a task, Reiko enthusiastically carried out the instructions. She was so enthusiastic that she moved the broken arms quite roughly; despite the Schmerzmittel, Valentino groaned in his stupor.
After gagging him as well, the capture of Valentino was complete.
"Now then, regarding his treatment..." Reinhard took charge of the situation. "Since he's an internationally wanted criminal, I believe he should be extradited to the Kingdom of Elias."
"Yeah, that sounds best."
However, the party currently lacked the resources for a long-distance transport, so they decided on the next best course of action: handing him over to the proper authorities in the Kingdom of Egerea.
"Damn... one of the wagons is in pieces."
The wagon carrying their food and water had been completely destroyed by the enemy golems. They managed to recover what food was still intact, but most of their water was lost.
"I’d hoped to reach the Town of Phantol today, but that's out of the question. We'll have to get water at Rufart Village just ahead."
Since the Schwarzritter couldn't be repaired on the road, Jin had the captured Albus carry the incapacitated machine to the village. With the Schwarzritter's original wagon now empty, they loaded the salvaged food onto it.
Finally, as a discussion began regarding the boulder blocking the path, Jin gave a somewhat weary order.
"Ah, enough of this. Reiko, smash it."
"Yes, Father!"
Reiko, who felt she hadn't done enough during the fight, walked joyfully toward the rock and struck it. With a deafening roar, the three-meter-wide boulder shattered into pieces. Needless to say, the faces of everyone except Jin twitched at the display.
Reiko then began to grab the larger fragments, tossing them over the cliff like they were bits of scrap paper until the road was clear. While she worked, Reinhard turned to Jin.
"Now then, Jin, could you tell me more about that magic?"
Elsa drew closer as well. Jin saw no reason to keep it a secret; in fact, he felt it was necessary to share the knowledge so that people could develop countermeasures.
"Sure. First, what Albus used was a type of craft magic called Overwrite."
He explained that the spell's purpose was to overwrite the magi-formula in a control core, causing the original commands to fail. He further explained that Erase and Write In were the results of his analysis of that method.
"B-But is it really possible to do that without touching the magi-crystal?!"
Reinhard’s shock was understandable. It was common knowledge that writing a magi-formula required such extreme precision that it was impossible without direct contact with the crystal.
"Yeah, that was the mystery. Let's take a look."
He examined Albus alongside Reinhard. It didn't take long for them to find it.
"Hey, Jin! Look at this!" Reinhard pointed to a gemstone glowing with a faint blue light. It was a magi-crystal, but of a rare variety.
"This is Elradrite."
It was a gemstone capable of amplifying mana. They concluded that by using its properties, the golem could generate enough mana intensity to perform non-contact Overwriting.
"I see. So that's the trick."
Both men were satisfied with the answer, but Reinhard remained impressed. "I'm still amazed you were able to pull that off, Jin. It took an amplifier for them to manage it."
"It wasn't easy. I had to analyze the mechanism on the fly and then build up a massive amount of mana." Jin explained the period when he had been muttering to himself. He added that he felt safe taking the time because the barrier from his bracelet was protecting him.
"But I was still worried," Elsa said, having approached them quietly. Jin offered her a sincere apology.
"Anyway, once I understood the logic, I just cast it back at Albus. I used Erase to wipe the magi-formula and then used Write In to command it to capture Valentino." He concluded by noting that because of the distance, he couldn't write a very detailed formula, which was why the golem had been so clumsy and broken the man's bones.
"Well, he brought those broken bones on himself," Reinhard said, implicitly telling Jin not to feel guilty.
"Father, the road is clear."
Reiko had finished clearing the path.
"All right, let's head out."
The party set out toward Rufart Village. Thin clouds covered the sky, signaling that spring was near.